An old photo showing a drone is viral online with the misleading claim that the Indian army recently captured a Pakistani drone after it crossed the line of control (LoC) and tried to enter Indian territory.
BOOM found that the claims are misleading and the incident is from April 2023 when the Indian army recovered ammunition and cash from a drone in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.
One photo shows a drone laid flat on the ground and another shows items such as rifle magazines and cash recovered from it.
A caption on X (formerly Twitter) reads, "Vigilant SFs shot down a Pák drone carrying cash, ammunition in #JammuKashmir's #Rajouri. 05 AK magazines & cash dropped frm this drone also recovered near the LoC. Pak frustrated to see #KashmirRejectsTerror & trying to create it's hold in other areas of J&K."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the incident is from April 2023 when the Indian army along with the Jammu and Kashmir Police neutralised a suspicious drone carrying cash and ammunition in Rajouri.
A reverse image search of the drone on Google led us to an article published by Economic Times on April 14, 2023, with the headline 'Drone carrying cash, rifle magazines shot down in J-K's Rajouri, massive search ops launched'. The visuals in the report matched the viral image of the drone.
According to the report, a suspicious aerial object was spotted and shot down near Beri Pattan in Rajouri district by security forces during the intervening night of 12 and 13 April. An NDTV report on the incident stated that extensive search operations were being carried out in nearby villages.
We also found this X post shared by ANI on April 13 with the same information. While citing the PRO of J&K, the post stated that 131 rounds of AK-47, 5 magazines, and cash worth Rs 2 lakh were recovered from the drone.
Similar stories were also published by Hindustan Times and The Hindu on April 13.
We also found a clarification regarding the viral image of the drone put out by the Rajouri Police on X. The post, published on September 27, clarified that "no such drone dropping as shown in the news/photos has taken place in the district today". Read the full post here below:
A second tweet also mentioned that the photos are from an earlier incident.
